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The Dark Night of the Soul

A re-birthing of soul can be a repetitive process throughout one’s life, or a very long process that lasts for years. It sometimes results in what traditionally has been called ‘a dark night of the soul.’ This is a class of challenges that can deeply transform us and profoundly change the relationship between our personality and soul.

When you are going through this difficult time neither you, nor the people around you, know exactly what is happening. It is the initiation stage of the transformation process described in a previous Soul Perspective. It is being caused by the soul’s influence attempting to change the relationship it has with its instrument, the personality. Because we do not initiate these changes within our rational mind or conscious choosing, we do not know what is occurring and there is a great deal of trust required.

As one’s life seems to be breaking apart, we need to know that there is a real need for renewal with greater soul presence. The primary way to deal with this is to let go of personality agendas and attempt to open to the soul’s influences. You need to be as fully present as possible with what you are experiencing, remembering that something beneficial is happening. And therefore, something needs to be let go of in order for something new to enter. You need to allow soul to reform and transform you on mental and emotional levels. Let it prompt you to develop new ideas, new attitudes, new feelings, new abilities, and especially new or deeper qualities of soul like compassion and understanding.

Dark nights can occur when we are capable of more, but are not moving forward – i.e., when we are choosing to be unconscious or superficial.

There are challenges in our life that are not so deep but do require skill to deal with them adequately. But there are others that are so profound and often long lasting that no medicine or psychology or skill can touch. They require a spiritual response, a soul-centered stance that often can only be attained through trust and surrender. When you succeed in this you re-emerge from the depths with a new vision of life and a deeper sense of who you are and of your purpose in life.

Depression, despair, emptiness and the like, that might accompany your dark night, are not deviations from health or well-being. They are rather signs of passage, indications of the need for greater awareness and soul awakening.

When experiencing a challenge as deep as a dark night it is good to talk about it, reflect on it, feel into it – without making yourself a victim of it.

Sometimes on the outside it will look like you have failed to deal with the challenge (for example, an economic collapse that you do not economically recover from) but you may have succeeded spiritually because you have learned and have become more compassionate, discriminating, generous or soul conscious in some specific ways.

Exercises: 1. What is your vision or philosophy of life that allows for challenges and dark nights of the soul? 2. What are your deepest values that no problems can erase? 3. How seriously do you value your life and experiences? 4. How do you take care of yourself physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually?

This is one of 150 Soul Perspective articles. For more articles visit Soul Perspectives Index.

Andrew and Bonnie Schneider are now offering personal interactive email coaching for the 4 Level Soul Journey program. Connect weekly with Andrew and Bonnie on how to develop soul consciousness. Read more about this personal coaching from Andrew and Bonnie Schneider by clicking here.